First Blood
by Jocasta Silver
Summary: "It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But far more terrible is to admit it." What set Sion on the path into darkness?


Author's Note: This one-shot came from playing Kotor 2 and wondering what Sion's past was like, before he became a Sith Marauder under Exar Kun.

Warning: There is violence, some child abuse, as well as one reference to abortion. If you don't like any of these themes, then do not read this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own "Star Wars" or "Knights of the Old Republic 2". They all belong to Lucasarts.

First Blood

"It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But far more terrible, is to admit it."-Kreia

He was his father's scion, the blot on his existence. Although his birth name was Louis, his father always called him Scion. Because it was his fault that his mother had left them right after he was born. She had never wanted children, but could not afford the medical procedure to terminate her pregnancy. So she had left her son in the hands of his sire, who despised him for it. At first, the boy resented his father's nickname, but eventually, he grew used to the name. There was only one being who called him Louis.

…

"Hi Louis!" Vicky chirped. "What's up?"

Scion smiled back. Vicky was his only true friend on this nowhere of a planet. Salina. Although it boasted lush forests, and smooth rolling hills, it was too far from the trade routes to be either a tourist attraction or benefit from commerce from the other systems that were part of the Republic.

"The usual," he replied. "Father's complaining about how I'm the reason Mother left, and how it's my entire fault, and all that useless garbage."

Vicky's violet eyes widened in sympathy. "You could move in with me, and get away from that schutta. He doesn't deserve to have a son as wonderful as you."

"I'm not sure you're parents would like that," he pointed. While they never came out and said it, Scion sensed that Vicky's parents did not approve of him, and feared that he would be a bad influence to their daughter.

"They wouldn't mind," Vicky said. "You're like family to me, I mean; you're the closest thing I have to a brother."

Instead of arguing with her, Scion decided to distract her from her worries about his father. "Do you remember when we first met?"

Vicky laughed lightly. "As if I could ever forget."

_Scion stood nervously away from the others in the school yard. It was his first day here, and his first time away from home and his father. Even though his father ignored him most of the time, he was the only being that Scion knew well enough not to be nervous. Now he was stuck here in a yard full of curious faces of various human, humanoid, and alien species. They all talked excitedly to each other in a way that sounded like jumbled garbage to Scion. How were they able to talk to others so easily? It had been a hardship for him to even manage a "hello" to the teacher. _

_Just then, he noticed several boys were huddled around a corner. They were all of humanoid species that he did not recognize. As he moved closer to see what was going on, he realized that they were not huddling. They were circling a young human girl, who was holding something that was just out of their reach. _

_"Just give it to us!" the middle one yelled._

_"No!" she screamed. "You'll hurt him."_

_"Come on Vicky," one of the other two, a blue Twi'lek persuaded. "It's just a stupid cricka bug. It's not as if it has feelings."_

_"Just leave me alone!" Vicky tried to run past their circle, but the Twi'lek roughly grabbed her arm, and held her there._

_"Leave her alone!" No one was more surprised than Scion himself to hear those words being yelled out of his own mouth. But, he felt the instinct to defend this girl, and her helpless cricka bug from these nasty boys. He instinctively, waved his arm, and the Twi'lek who was holding Vicky, lost his grip on her arm and fell onto to the grass as if pushed back by an invisible force. The other two ran like startled kath hounds, and the other, was quick to get to his feet and follow his cronies. _

_"Hey," he said gently, offering hand to help her up. "I'm Sci-Louis."_

_"Nice to meet you Louis," she had replied. "I'm Vicky."_

Scion smiled. Vicky was one of the few beings on this planet who did not think he was a disaster waiting to happen. Speaking of negative thinking people. "I have to go," he said. "I'm going to be late getting home as it is."

Vicky sighed. "All right, be careful, and if you change your mind, you know where to find me."

Scion nodded, before leaving. But he had no intention of changing his mind. That was one of the few things that Vicky did not understand, how others did not trust him, and in fact blamed him for his volatile father. But that did not matter right now. What mattered was that he had to get home before his father noticed he was absent. He shivered involuntarily. The consequences would be horrible. At last, he stood in front of his house that was really more of a run-down shack. "Home sweet home," he muttered, marveling at the irony of his words, because while this place was his 'home' in the loosest definition of the word, it was hardly sweet. He softly pushed, and the door caved/ opened inwards, revealing a set of rooms clustered around a dark disheveled room.

"Scion," a harsh voice said.

Scion turned startled, as his father emerged from the shadows. Although he had the same brown eyes as Scion and same creamy brown skin, he was a good several feet taller, and his face was very tight, so tight, that Scion wondered why it did not crack from the built up pressure. His father casually grabbed Scion's shoulders and latched on to them with his hands. Scion fought back a whimper from the pain. His tears and pleading would only fuel the fires of his father's hatred.

"So," he observed casually. "You're back."

Scion could speak for the lump in his throat, so he settled for nodding, and trying not to wince as his father's hands clamped down on his shoulders.

His father nodded and laughed to himself, before releasing his son and walking back and sitting on the badly torn up couch as if nothing had happened.

Scion fumed silently. His father was always able to make him feel pain, whether it was beating him half to death, or locking him in a dark room for a whole day, and then forcing him to walk out into the blinding sunlight. He hated that pain, and he swore to himself that one day he would show his father the true meaning of pain. _"One day,"_ he promised himself.

….

That day came when he was fifteen. His father had gone into one of his violent fits, and had slapped him so hard that Scion briefly saw stars. The hard slap angered him. As his father's fist moved to connect with his face again, Scion's right hand shot out and caught it.

His father's brown eyes widened in shock, Scion had never fought back at him before. He tried to kick him, but Scion deftly dodged the kick and instinctively grabbed around his father's throat with his hands. His father's eyes were now wide with fear and almost pleading his son for mercy.

_"Kill him,"_ a cold voice rasped in his head. Scion almost listened to the voice. His father had always beaten him, and had tried his very hardest to tear his son down. And yet, if he killed him, it would give him nothing. There were better ways to punish his father for the crimes he had committed against him.

Reluctantly, he loosened the hold on his father's neck, and his father let out a gasp. Scion glared at his father. "You will leave," he stated. "You will leave here and never return." He tightened his grip slightly to emphasize his point.

"I will…leave," his father gasped. "I will leave and never return."

Scion smiled. "Good _**father**_." He spat the title out, as though he was addressing a disobedient kath hound pup. He released his grip on his father's neck, and his father immediately sprang away and moved towards the door, occasionally glancing back at his son, his eyes still wide with fear. At first this fear worried Scion, but he shook that worry off. If his father feared him now, it meant that he would leave him alone, and never bother him again.

"Good riddance," Vicky had said when he told her the story, minus the threatening his father part of course. "It's about time that he left. No offense."

"None taken," Scion replied. By now, word had traveled around that Travis Mellis had left under mysterious circumstances. Other beings who encountered Scion stared at him with fearful eyes. But Scion did not care. He had one friend, and that was all he needed.

….

It all had fallen apart when he was only nineteen. He had decided to go and visit Vicky, in spite of the glares both her parents turned to him. Vicky was the closest thing he had to family. As he turned around the bend, he saw plumes of smoke, rising in the distance. Panicked, he ran at break-neck speed. Vicky's house came into view, and Scion recognized that this was the source of the fire. Just as he was about to run in and rescue Vicky and her family, he noticed a body lying sideways. He reached out and gently turned the body over with his hands.

It was Vicky. She lay motionless, her brown hair tangled, and in her face, her violet eyes, empty and wide with shock. Scion froze in shock and fell to his knees. This could not be happening. It could not be happening. He felt a shaking within him, and realized that tears were streaming down his face. How could this have happened? The answer came quickly. Since their homeworld was not a vital resource to the Republic, raiders could strike here without repercussions. Raiders had obviously come through, and stripped Vicky's house, murdering her and her parents. Scion felt a blackness within himself rise and take control. He would make sure that these murderous raiders would not live to regret the deed they had performed. He began to look around, and sure enough, he saw faint sets of tracks from the killers that lead directly into the woods. Without fully thinking, he started to follow those tracks.

He moved instinctively, deftly jumping over tree roots and avoiding branches, while at the same time, making good time, so the trail would not go cold. It was as if a six sense was guiding him, as he knew where the raiders were going before they themselves had decided. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped. Scion paused by a small tree, and listened. Had they managed to outmaneuver him? Just then, he heard soft voices on the other side of the tree. He cautiously crawled into a nearby bush and listen.

"And I told you before Alex, we don't need to worry about a pursuit team," a gravelly male voice intoned. "The Republic doesn't give a damn about this planet. Besides, they're currently busy dealing with other threats."

"Well I still think we should be more careful!" a sharp feminine voice retorted. "There's still the odd chance the Republic might send someone to deal with us!"

"All right fine, you can help me try to rein the others in."

Scion scooted slightly closer to get a better look. He was so preoccupied that he did not noticed the branch in front of him, until he knee split it in half, sending a loud cracking noise that echoed throughout the clearing.

"What was that?" Alex sounded alert and wary.

"I didn't here anything," the man retorted. "It's probably just a wild animal. The woods are full of them."

"Well, I still think I heard something!"

"All right! All right! Keep your hair on, I'll go and check it out."

Scion heard a rustling of the branches as the man came closer. He crept through the bushes quietly, and then pulled himself out, and crouched behind a tree. As the man walked past, he jumped out. The man's eyes widened in shock and before he could react, Scion reached out with a hand, and instinctively clenched his fist. The man's hands went desperately went to his throat, and there was gurgling noise, that was silenced by a loud crack. Scion unclenched his fist and the man fell to the ground like a broken youngling's toy.

"Jaden? Jaden!" Alex ran to see what was wrong and was met by Scion. Rage filled him, and he quickly blasted her with lightning. Everything became blurry as he fought against all the raiders, the pain that Vicky's death had caused him, fueling the fires of his hatred. At last, they were all dead, and he was the only thing left alive in the clearing.

She had found him there in the clearing, crying over the bodies of those he had slain. Her skin was a deeper brown than his own, and her hair was a dark black. She looked quite pretty, except for her eyes. They were a sickly yellow shade that sent shivers down Scion's spine.

Scion tried to speak, but his mouth would not work. "Who are you?!" he demanded, once he could get his mouth to function properly.

The woman smiled, in a sinister way. "I am Nayama. And you are?"

Scion was about to say Louis, but stopped himself. The only person who ever called him Louis was Vicky, and she was dead. "I'm Sion," he replied.

"Well Sion. There are certain beings who would be quite interested in your skills." Nayama indicated the carnage around her.

Sion felt a slight sick feeling in his stomach at the destruction he had caused, but he quickly brushed it off. These things did not deserve remorse. They had been murderers who had killed Vicky, his one friend. They had deserved to die. Sion stood, and gave Nayama a twisted smile of his own. He nodded to her and followed her, leaving the clearing behind. He did not look back once.

Author's Note: This one-shot is not my most original piece of work, but oh well. Not everything an author writes is going to an outstanding success. Anyways, to the fans of "Shadows of the Force", I haven't abandoned that. I've just been busy revising some original fiction. I hope you enjoyed this one-shot. Please read and review.


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